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sunset in central Greenland.
Solar eclipses occur when the orbiting earth and moon happen to line up in front of the sun so that—seen from earth—the moon momentarily blots out all or part of the sun.
Lunar eclipses often happen two weeks after solar eclipses as the moon swings behind the earth and into the earth’s shadow. Early astronomers were the first to realize that the curved shadow of the earth on the moon was remote evidence that the earth was not flat but round.
Shadow Misses Earth
An eclipse of the sun does not happen every time the moon swings between us and the sun because the orbit of the moon is slightly out of line with the earth’s. As a result, the shadow of the moon usually misses hitting the earth and instead stabs off into space.
During a year there can be as many as five solar eclipses, or as few as two. But they may not always be as spectacularly apparent as the February eclipse wifi be to many Americans and Canadians.
During a man’s lifetime, he might see a lunar eclipse from his hometown less than once a year on the average, and a partial eclipse of the sun less than every two years.
However, he would have to be very lucky to see a total eclipse, but if one did darken his hometown, another would not be seen there for at least 360 years.
Nobody will see a solar eclipse again in North America until Aug. 21, 2017, when the center of the moon’s shadow will streak across much of the United States. However, a total eclipse of the sun will be visible near Honolulu, Hawaii, on July 11, 1991.
Astronomers warn that partial or permanent blindness can result from only an
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